Fred, George, and a Bottle of Skelegrow
by Karen Weasley
Summary: Fred and George experiment all the time to create new products for their store. Here's an example of what happens when things don't go quite as planned...


**Written for the QLFC round 8. My challenge this round was to write a story with Skelegrow as an important aspect. My optional prompts were: (word) permeate, (word) raindrops, and (word) special. I hope you all enjoy this!**

 _ **Fred, George, and a Bottle of Skelegrow**_

Raindrops pounded against the windows of the apartment above Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. It felt like it hadn't stopped raining in ages, but in reality it had only been for a few days. The only positive side to the near constant rain was the fact that it kept most customers hiding away in their own homes, giving the owners of the shops a few days off.

Fred and George had, in particular, been working extra hard over the past few weeks as it was the end of summer, and most children were eager to restock their pranking supplies before another school year began. This also meant that Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood were also kept extra busy helping their fiancés run the shop.

Due to the lack of customers, Fred and George had decided to close the shop for the day and head off to their inventing room for the day while leaving the girls to their own devices. Luna had gone outside to tend to the garden despite the steady rain (she had said something about this kind of rain being perfect to garden in), and Hermione had, to no one's surprise, decided to curl up in a chair by the fire and read.

As she made herself comfortable, Hermione took a moment to simply revel in the rare quiet surrounding her. It wasn't as though she didn't like living with the twins – she did love Fred after all, George was like her brother, and Luna had even grown on her to the point of being good friends – but she did miss the quiet of the Hogwarts library from time to time.

Her fiancé certainly kept life interesting, even if the shop wasn't open. While Luna claimed the weather was perfect for gardening, Hermione swore the weather was perfect for giving the twins even crazier ideas than was usual for them. Only yesterday her quiet had been interrupted by the sounds of explosions coming from the twin's inventing room.

Hermione had run down only to find Fred and George ducking and dodging what looked like floating pieces of paper as they exploded whenever they landed on a solid surface.

"What in Merlin's name did you do?!" she demanded, glaring at her fiancé.

"Photo bombs," Fred explained when the last one had finally exploded on the floor.

"What?" Hermione gaped at him.

"Well, I got the idea when I heard those muggles talking about it when we went out to that restaurant the other day," Fred explained. "When I told George about it –"

"—we agreed it was too great an opportunity to pass up!" George grinned.

"So you literally made photos that explode?" Hermione sighed. "You know that's not what they mean."

"Yeah, but this is funnier than their idea," Fred argued with a wicked grin.

"A bit dangerous don't you think?" Hermione pointed out.

"So we have a few bugs to work out," George waved his hand. "No big deal."

Hermione had thrown up her hands in frustration and left the twins to it, but she had still had to deal with the sounds of explosions for the rest of the day. She hoped the quiet today meant that they were either busy with research or working on a more innocent prank.

She had just opened her book to pick up where she had left off when she heard the sounds of loud swearing coming from the invention room. Rolling her eyes, she tried to concentrate on her book until she heard Fred's voice: "MIONE!"

Hermione leapt from her chair and ran for the room downstairs. Fred never called her unless it was a real emergency. Her panic lowered when the air seemed clear: occasionally, the smells of fire or a ruined potion would permeate the air, and Hermione would be called, but today there was nothing that _smelled_ life threatening, but Hermione had learned that the twins were creative in all things…including ways to hurt themselves.

Running down the stairs to the invention room, Hermione threw open the door and stared around the room for her fiancé. Fred was leaning against the table in the room clutching his right arm to his chest. George was in the same position only a few feet away. Both looked sheepishly up at her, but she was only relieved that they were not dying.

"What's wrong?" she asked crossing to Fred's side. "Why did you call me?"

"Well, we were thinking about when Harry lost all the bones in his arm back at school…" Fred began.

"And even though that was horrible, we thought it might make a good prank if we could lessen the effects," George continued.

"We were trying to alter a spell to make someone lose their bones—" Fred sighed.

"—but unfortunately it didn't work so well," George finished.

"What did it do to you?" Hermione asked.

In response, Fred and George both held up their right arms: they flopped, boneless, from side to side as their left hands supported them. "Oh no…" Hermione breathed.

"Unfortunately we think these results are not going to wear off anytime soon like we intended," Fred observed. "So…we may have a problem."

Hermione groaned. "Come upstairs both of you. I'll get Luna and see if I can find some Skelegrow."

"Wait what?" George gasped.

"Mione, please not that stuff," Fred groaned. "That stuff hurts!"

"You should have thought of that before, but it's the only thing that I know of that will work, and I have to grow your bones back!"

Hermione hurried back up the stairs and headed for the back door where Luna was still working in the garden. "Luna, can you come in here?"

"What's wrong?" Luna asked as she saw Hermione's face.

"Fred and George were trying to make a spell that would temporarily remove bones, and they ended up removing the bones from their right arms with a spell that won't wear off."

"Oh dear…" Luna sighed as she wiped her hands on her apron. "George will be up all night telling me it hurts."

"Fred will be doing the same," Hermione agreed. "Do you know if we have any Skelegrow left?"

"I think there's some above the sink," Luna replied.

"Really? I thought we used it all up when they broke their bones on their sped-up roller skates last month."

"I went and got some more," Luna explained as they headed for the kitchen. "I had a feeling we would need it with those two in the house."

"Sometimes I wonder why we put up with them," Hermione groaned.

"Because we love them," Luna said simply. "Our lives would be boring without them."

"I guess that's true. BOYS GET IN HERE!" Hermione shouted. "YOU NEED THIS, AND YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUT OF IT!"

Fred and George dragged themselves into the kitchen and stared wearily at the bottle on the counter.

"You're sure there's no special way to fix this, love?" Fred tried desperately.

"No this is the only way that I know will work, and I don't feel like experimenting on my fiancé's arm!" Hermione replied. "Just take it and get it over with."

Fred gulped and downed the tumbler before he could think twice about it.

George glanced at Luna who nodded sympathetically as he downed his own tumbler.

Both boys made horrible faces as the liquid hit their throats, and Hermione sighed. "Now, why don't we all head upstairs for bed and we can deal with the pain that will come, alright?"

Hermione came out of the bathroom and saw Fred curled up in their bed like a child. She sighed – she knew she had been harsh on him initially, and she knew he would genuinely be in pain soon, and her love for him was quickly replacing her frustration and exasperation. She lay down on her side and wrapped her arms around his middle, burying her face in his neck.

"I'll be here all night for you, you know," she whispered. "I really am sorry this hurts so much, and if there was another way to fix you, I would, but I don't want to hurt you."

"I know, love," Fred sighed. "Sometimes I hate the fact that we experiment so much," he admitted. "I'm tired of needing you to fix me all the time because you shouldn't have to worry about it. It's not what you wanted in a relationship."

"Fred, I wanted _you_ in a relationship, and I knew what I was getting in to. I love you, and it doesn't matter if I have to dose you with Skelegrow once a month for the rest of my life – this is what I want because I love you!"

Fred smiled and kissed her before settling against the pillows. "Well, I'm going to try and sleep before the pain hits. I'm sorry in advance for waking you."

"I don't mind," Hermione smiled. "Just promise me you'll be careful with your experiments from now on."

"I promise, love."

Two weeks later, Hermione was settling to curl up with her book while Luna was in the garden. There had not been any incidents since the bones day, and Hermione was beginning to believe that Fred was going to keep his word about being careful. She cracked the worn spine of the novel and began to read when…

CRASH! "MIONE!"

Hermione sighed. "Some things never change…Luna they're at it again!"


End file.
